Whitmer’s Disastrous Interview With The Detroit News Editorial Board

REALITY: Schools In Michigan Were Closed For Two Years. 

• Whitmer shut schools down on March 12, 2020 for three weeks. 
• In April 2020, Whitmer expanded the order closing the schools down for the rest of the academic year. 
• In July 2020, Whitmer announced that she will not be reopening the schools until she felt it was safe. 
• In August 2020, Whitmer issued guidance to schools but did not require them to reopen. 
• In November 2020, Whitmer forced any school that opened in September to close. 
• In April 2021, Whitmer asked schools to halt in-person learning. 

• Going into 2022, many school districts such as Flint, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Battle Creek and Lansing refused to fully reopen. 

• In January 2022, Whitmer finally called on all schools to reopen to in-person instruction. 

• The experts agree, school closures are detrimental to children’s health: 
  • Leading psychologists across the world warned of long-term mental health risks with keeping children from socializing and face-to-face contact with other children. 
  • Children with disabilities were hurt by not having a normal school day. 
  • Child abuse and domestic violence skyrocketed during the lockdown. 
  • The lockdowns worsened racial and class divides in education. 
  • Parents were burdened by the rise of child care costs. 
  • Failing grades rose throughout Michigan by 35 percent in high schools and 20 percent in elementary and middle schools  – one district responded to the rise in failures by eliminating failing grades. 
• Test scores dropped among Michigan students across the board. 
  • 4^th grade reading scores dropped to the lowest levels in three decades. 

REALITY: Whitmer And The Democrat Party Are Out Of Step With Most Americans On Abortion. 

• Whitmer supports prop 3 which permits unlimited and unregulated abortions. If prop 3 passes: 
  • Parents will not be informed or have the opportunity to consent to their daughter get an abortion. 
  • Abortions will be sanctioned by the state all the way up to the point of birth and the baby can be terminated for any reason or no reason at all. 
  • Allows abortions to be performed by undefined “health care professionals” instead of just doctors. 
  • Parents will not be informed or have the opportunity to consent to their child having life-altering sex-change operations. 
  • The sexual whims of the progressive lefts will trump fundamental constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and exercising religious conscience. 
  • Age of consent laws designed to protect minors from predatory adults will be weakened. 
• Americans overwhelmingly support pro-life policies. 
  • 72 percent of Americans want some restrictions on abortions. 
  • 80 percent of Americans want to ban third trimester abortions and 65 percent of Americans want to ban second trimester abortions 
  • 55 percent of Americans support a 15-week limit on abortions when they learn that babies feel pain at 15 weeks. 
    • The Journal of Medical Ethics found that babies begin to feel pain at 12 weeks. 

REALITY: Whitmer Has Supported The Practice Of Partial-Birth Abortion 

• Whitmer promised to veto any legislation that will end “dismemberment abortion.” 
  • Dismemberment abortion, also referred to as dilation and evacuation is a later term abortion procedure which involves the barbaric process of cutting apart the infant in the womb. 
• Whitmer told former Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod in a podcast that an abortion is a “life-sustaining measure.”   
• In 2008, Whitmer spoke out against a ban on partial-birth abortions. 
• In 2003, Whitmer voted against a ban on partial-birth abortions. 

REALITY: Whitmer Has Always Wanted To Raise Your Taxes 

• In June 2022, Whitmer vetoed Republican legislation to cut Michigan’s income tax rate.
• In April 2022, Whitmer vetoed Republican legislation to suspend the state gas tax to help alleviate the cost of rising gas prices.
• In March 2022, Whitmer vetoed Republican legislation to provide a $500 per child tax credit. 
• Whitmer’s 2022 budget included raising $27.6 million in new fees for normal everyday services as getting a traffic accident report from the state police, requesting a driving record, fees on obtaining x-rays and mammograms and waste removal. 
• In July 2021, Whitmer vetoed business tax breaks for s-corporations 
• June 2021, Whitmer vetoed giving a tax break for businesses for the purchases of PPE 
• Whitmer’s 2020 budget proposal included a 41 percent tax on small businesses known as “pass-throughs.” 
• In 2019, Whitmer indicated that she would support House Democrat bills that would move Michigan’s income tax from a flat tax to a progressive tax state.
• In 2019, Whitmer called for a 6 percent business tax. 
• In 2019, Whitmer threatened an income tax increase if her 45-cent gas tax plan was not approved. 
• During her 2018 campaign. Whitmer called the notion that she would raise the gas tax “ridiculous” and “nonsense,” However, in her third month in office, Whitmer called for a 45-cent gas tax, effectively doubling it.

• Whitmer campaigned in 2018 on repealing the pension tax promising she would get it done in her first year in office.  
  • Whitmer is now in her fourth year in office and failed to get it done in 2019 as promised outraging many retirees.  
  • The repeal had bipartisan support. 
    • Detroit Free Press’ Paul Egan: “…but more than a year after Whitmer took office, the tax remains in place, despite the fact majority leaders in both chambers say they support its repeal in principle.” 
  • Whitmer poisoned the well by tying the pension tax repeal to an increase in taxes on Michigan’s businesses.
• In 2014, Whitmer voted on a bill that would have doubled Michigan’s gas tax.
  • This came after admitting that a gas tax increase would hurt the poor.
• In 2014, Whitmer supported Prop. 1 which would have increased the state sales tax to seven percent as well as hiked fees.

REALITY: Whitmer Ignored The Advice Of Medical Experts And As A Result 8,000 Long-Term Care Patients Died And Then Tried To Cover Up The True Extent Of The Deaths. 

• In March 2020, the President and CEO of the Health Care Association of Michigan sent a letter to Whitmer asking for COVID-19-infected patients to be sent to separate facilities and away from the general nursing home population.
• The Whitmer administration was warned that nursing homes deaths were likely higher than public reports due to poor testing.
• It was not until May that Whitmer asked nursing homes to separate COVID-infected patients from non-infected patients but allowed them to remain in the same facility.
• In June, nursing home data became public showing a sharp rise in deaths.
• In July, the legislature passed a bill which mandated nursing home patients with COVID-19 to be transferred out of nursing homes and into separate facilities. and Whitmer vetoed it calling it a “political game.”
• In January 2022, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) concluded that Michigan Health Officials underreported nursing home deaths by 42 percent.
  • There were 8,061 long-term care facility deaths – not the 5,675 that Whitmer reported.